


Amalgamation

by blairxeim



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Angst with a Happy Ending, Cliche Overload, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Hanahaki Disease, I think it's worth it, M/M, Mating Bites, One-Sided Attraction, Rivals to Friends to Lovers, Roommates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, sorry it goes from rom-com-esk to angst and heartbreak, there was only one bed cliche
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:40:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 18,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23857750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blairxeim/pseuds/blairxeim
Summary: So I have created a monster. A monster fic that combines the tropes (not all at once): ABO (alpha, beta, omega), EFL (enemies, friends, lovers), hanahaki (one-sided love flower disease), fake dating, one bed, roommates, and soulmates. Also coffee shop and flower shop au. I was told it probably wouldn't work well and so I did it anyways.Keith has finally opened up his own floral shop and learns soon after that a cafe will be opening next door. That has to be good for business, at least aesthetically speaking. Lance and Hunk have finally opened up the cafe they've dreamed about. Only problem is, Lance is convinced the florist next door has it out for him. A lack of care on both sides has now lead both Keith and Lance into being roommates. Hunk just wants them to get along, Pidge wants to at least be able to record it if they do fight. Allura is along for the ride, but hopes they won't kill each other. Heyy, who wants some fluff to angst to fluff?
Relationships: Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Hunk/Shay (Voltron), Keith & Lance (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron), Klance - Relationship
Comments: 8
Kudos: 39





	1. Chapter One: Kiss With a Fist

**Author's Note:**

> So right off the bat, let me say this is a fic prompt of throwing as many fic cliche's in as we could think of. Also I'm apologizing in advance on how angsty this turned out. It was going to be all comedy/fluff and someone my gremlin brain decided "Ehhhh lets make it hurt." and so here we are. Hope you enjoy, it's starts happy so let's at least enjoy that?
> 
> Chapter theme: Kiss With a Fist - Florence + the Machine

It was a small shop, with enough room in the front for five tables, an area within customer view for making the drinks, and enough room in the back for Hunk’s modest kitchen. Straight out the back was a horrible dumpster even Hunk had trouble getting open due to how bent and rusted the top seemed to be. Still, this was his and Hunk’s own place that they bought with their own money, and a loan of course. Lance could barely keep the grin off his face, though truthfully he WAS hardly trying. After sweeping the already pristine floors, Lance went to grab the chalkboard sign for the front of the store. Currently displaying the daily special Hunk was in the process of prepping in the back, Lance let out an exaggerated puff of breath as he heaved it up into his arms. “I’m taking the sign out, opening in t-minus ten!” Lance called back to Hunk, who called back an excited, “nine!” “Eight!” Hunk continued to count, chuckling from the back as Lance was cut off by the door closing behind him. This was the greatest moment of his life. He could practically feel his luck changing. How could he not be lucky? He got to open his own cafe with his best friend, he’d recently been able to find the perfect apartment, and he’d gotten a girl to go on a date with him after just a single well placed pickup line just a couple weeks ago. It might not have lasted but that doesn’t matter. Right now, this sign being put out and his store’s door being unlocked was all he needed in life. His buddy in the kitchen, him manning the front. Lance wondered if he was being blessed by the heavens considering he was also moving into that new apartment later on today, once he closed for the afternoon.

Lance set the board out on the street in front of the cafe, leaning back to look at Hunk’s careful yet blocky lettering of the cafe’s breakfast and lunch specials. His grin grew wider. He just felt so good, so proud of himself for once. Truly accomplished. They did this, they succeeded. He finally did something worthy of an alpha. Setting up a successful business was what the norm was for alphas in society. Maybe successful is a bit of an early call, Lance thought sheepishly. But there was no way their store wouldn’t be. They worked too hard. Hunk’s skills were too good. Lance’s charm and gentlemanly humor were too smooth. They were sure to knock everyone’s expectations away. First day means first impressions and Lance was obviously the best at those. Lance snorted at the obviousness, pushing the seeds of doubt far down. He was good at doing that, and his face would never betray him. It was going to be a good day, and he was going to make sure of it. He repeated this a few times to himself, before taking a deep breath and looking up at the morning sun. The weather was already decent. The ladies even more so-

Lance jolted out of his daydream, his wide smile slipping off his face as cold water pooled down his ankles. “What?” He turned around with a shocked, but only mildly annoyed expression as the wetness seeped into his socks. At first he didn’t see where it came from, until he looked around the corner to see the back of a man with a black mullet. A MULLET. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Lance quickly located the source of his sudden bad mood. The hose. “Hey!” Lance squared his shoulders, going for that tall and intimidating look. “Who do you think you are getting-” He stopped as the guy turned around, only slightly flinching away from the dark look on his face. Lance was one hundred percent sure he could have fully recovered if given the opportunity, maybe even gave a witty line or two, but how could he have known the guy would turn and keep the hose going as he did so?

As a blast of cold water smacked Lance in the chest, the guy’s eyes grew wide. “Shit-” He quickly let go of the nozzle. “Sorry, I didn’t realize you were so close-”

“Oh SURE you didn’t.” Lance bit back. He knew this guy. He was the rival store owner next door to his shop. “I know you did that on purpose. Once is maybe an accident but twice? That’s trying to take out the competition and you know it. My instinct knows a backhanded move when it sees one.” Lance moved to strike a pose he saw in a cool detective show before, knowing it looked both intimidating and sexy. His rival looked anything but impressed. Perhaps he was hiding his awe at how much pure alpha prowess Lance had, and he was trying to cleverly hide it behind an eye roll. Definitely that.

The mulleted menace narrowed his eyes before scowling. “Wait, what? You’re the owner of the cafe there... how are you my competition? This is a flower shop. Are you an idiot?”

It was bad enough it took him until now to recognize him, but for him to act as if he wasn’t even in the same league to be his rival. That didn’t sit well with Lance. After all, even if they were different stores, they were still competing for the customers’ spending. Rival store. Rival looks, though Lance was obviously the winner in that. Rival morning routines apparently as well, considering what just happened. Yet the worst part was that this was not their first meeting. Lance and Hunk had been working the past week to get the store up and running, even making the Holt siblings run down to help at points. And during that time, Lance had met this supposed flower shop owner. He had introduced himself, as one should, and what did it get him? Spikes in his butt. Yes, Lance had been assaulted in a similarly sneaky way by Keith a couple of days ago.

Lance had gone out the back door that went to the alleyway shared by the two shops, intending to throw out some of the trash collecting from setting up the furniture and essentials. When out of nowhere, a puddle very similar to the one formed by Keith’s so called ‘watering’ caused Lance to slip and fall into a pile of garbage sitting beside the dumpster. Dastardly placed within that pile of garbage was a perfectly fine cactus! Placed almost as if it was put on purpose. Yes, yes Lance could add up the dots. He said they weren’t rivals, but he obviously felt threatened enough to try taking out the competition early. “First the cactus outside and now hitting my ankles with water from behind? Just admit my impressive store has you worried for profits, instead of acting so childishly-”

“Did I get you with the hose before? My bad.” Keith sighed, looking at Lance in what he could only describe as a condescending apathy. How dare he? “And I’m not sure, but if you’re talking about any plants I had by the dumpster, they all were rotting from the roots from a fungus and needed to be thrown out before it spread any further.”

“Not even going to say sorry?” Lance gasped, offended and annoyed. Though Keith’s face mirrored his. “And that cactus was perfectly fine and sharp as hell.”

“I already said sorry before. Or are we having selective memory problems as well as delusions now?” Keith crossed his arms, his expression going dark. “Listen, you might be having a leisure day since you just opened but I have actual work to do-”

“You saying I slack off?” Lance exclaimed, fully offended.

“What is your problem?” Keith yelled back, throwing down the hose so hard that the nozzle bounced against the ground from the impact. “Are you seriously trying to start a fight right now? Over something as stupid as this?”

“Stupid! You soaked me!”

“After you started throwing a fit instead of just-”

“Lance?” Hunk opened the cafe’s door, looking between the two. He sheepishly waved at Keith as he looked between their angry, flushed faces. “Uh, hey there. Instead of killing each other could we maybe go to our respective shops? You both are kind of scaring away customers.”

Lance looked down the street both ways, seeing the early birds scurrying away down the other side of the street, refusing to even look at the three store owners. “Oh great, now you’re sabotaging our opening day as well.”

“Are you kidding me!” Keith growled, starting to advance on Lance before Hunk quickly scrambled in between them.

“Hey! Hey, hey, hey! Guys come on! No need to act like this-” Hunk chuckled nervously at the way Keith’s face scrunched up in anger. “I mean- uh- what I meant to say was-”

“Fine. Stay away from my store.” Keith snapped, grabbing the hose off the ground and dragging it over to the hose reel mounted to the side of his store.

“You mean you stay away from our-”

“Lance!” Hunk practically dragged the spitting man through the front door. “Jeez, man. What’s wrong with you? And why are you soaked?”

Lance pointed animatedly towards the flower shop owner as he walked to the counter. “He’s the reason! You think I’d go off on just anyone?”

“Well not exactly but-” Hunk sighed, scratching the back of his neck with a concerned look. “You’ve just been really weird towards him pretty much the whole time since you met him.”

“He cactused my butt Hunk!” That earned a delighted snort from his friend and a scowl from Lance. “I’m being serious.”

“Being seriously paranoid. Who even does that? Just admit it, you’re angry that all those girls you tried to hit on while we were setting up ended up going over to his shop and obviously gossiped about you.”

“So you admit it was obvious!”

“Well they did look over and point at us so...”

“See! Scandals! Tearing our store apart by word of mouth! They’re trying to ruin us!”

“Lance, the only thing ruining your store is your horrible pickup lines.” A third voice made both boys turn to see a short girl already chilling at one of their tables. She pushed her glasses up, smirking at them.

“Pidge not now! My world class pickup lines have nothing to do with that mean-mugging mullet!” Lance complained, crossing his arms. “Didn’t you see his plan? He got me riled up to make me look bad and scare away the competition!”

“Why would he do that? You’re both literally manning two different stores. Like two completely different types of stores.”

“That’s what he tried to say-”

“Are you an idiot?” Pidge laughed, but Lance ignored her and continued.

“He also tried to say that, but I know better. This goes beyond our stores. This is a battle between the pride of alphas. He obviously sees such a specimen like me as a threat and is competing with me to see who the true alpha is!”

“Oh, I take it back. You aren’t stupid.” Pidge pushed her chair away from the table and turned to look at Lance.

“Exactly!”

She snapped her fingers, resting her chin against the crook of her thumb and pointer finger in a mockingly thoughtful gesture. Lance could swear he even saw her glasses glint in the early sunlight. “You’re stupid AND jealous.” Hunk let out a bark of laughter and neither hid their smirks as Lance’s face burned.

“Jealous?” Even Lance begrudgingly thought his voice hit a higher octave on that one. Just the idea of it made his stomach twist.

“Well, you did pick a fight with him over really weird stuff. You don’t usually get...” Hunk twirled his hands, looking for the right word. “..so heated... over this- uh, type of thing.” He sighed, going behind the counter. “Plus you were scaring away the customers. On our opening day.” Hunk pouted, jokingly looking away as he wiped away a tear. “My poor unsold pastries and goods.”

“Keith’s face was scaring away the customers.” Lance grumbled.

“More like it’s his only selling point with that attitude.” Pidge quipped, pulling out her laptop. “And before you comment, I don’t care how much better you think your face is than his. Make your actual coffee the selling point of your shop.”

Hunk’s voice called out from behind the swing doors. “Or my cooking!”

“That was a no brainer.” Lance called back, before a smug grin spread on his face. “You’re right though, he does have a terrible service attitude.”

“Alright Karen-” Pidge muttered, though Lance ignored her.

“And I am the king of customer service.”

“Good thing we aren’t counting flower boy as a customer-”

“Nevermind him!” Lance’s face twisted into an overdramatic scowl as he shooed his hands as if to physically push the idea of Keith out of their conversation. “Hey wait, don’t you have classes right now?”

“What do you think I’m doing?” Pidge motioned to her laptop, grinning. “All early classes are online classes, as the college gods meant them to be.”

“If you’re going to leave the house anyways, you should have just taken them in person.” Lance shook his head. “They’re better that way.”

“Speak for yourself.” Shaking her head, she started typing away at, what Lance considered, an alarming speed. “Plus I decided to be your first customer.”

Lance looked away, smiling. That actually meant a lot to him, especially since the cafe was not as.... instantly popular as he had hoped upon setting up shop. “Well-” He cleared his throat. “Luckily for you, we have a special opening day promotion. First coffee and pastry are on the house for the first lucky customer.” Pidge flipped around with starry eyes just as Hunk came through the door with a plate. “Ah Hunk, great minds think alike?”

“Well I just thought today warrented some kind of celebration even if it is small.” Hunk grinned, setting down a plate with enough pastries for all of them. He even smirked as he playfully sighed. “Especially since it doesn’t look like I’ll get to sell these today anyways.”

“This is what heaven looks like.” Pidge moaned as she bit into the flakey crust. “If I die, I just wanna be sent up on a scone.”

“Mmmm, heaven scones.” Hunk agreed, getting a faraway look in his eyes as he imagined it.

“Forget scones-” Lance shook his head. “You gotta have those pretty angels bringing you up to the good place. Now that’s heavenly.” He winked as Hunk laughed and Pidge rolled her eyes.

“I’ll take my version over yours any day.” She turned back to her laptop as Lance went to go make drinks.

“Your loss.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After closing up for the night, Hunk had driven Lance’s stuff over to his new apartment since his truck had more space than Lance’s car. Having arrived a bit before Hunk, since Hunk had spent extra time double checking the straps holding everything down, Lance decided to go ahead inside. He still hadn’t met his roommate yet. They hadn’t even texted, though he vaguely remembers the landlord maybe possibly handing him a sheet with the contact information of his roommate to talk before it was all finalized. But that had all slipped Lance’s mind during the week before the store opening, if he was being honest. Sure he loved his friends, and living with Hunk and the Holt siblings in their old apartment complex had been a sweet deal on rent while he was going to college before he’d fully decided on what to do, but now he had a plan. Plus this apartment was so much closer. It cut his travel time down by fifteen minutes! He could practically walk to work if he wanted to, not that he particularly wanted to.

Still this was great, it looked like his roommate was already here. A nervousness wound around his gut for a moment before he pushed it down. Lance didn’t really have difficulties with sharing a space, normally. He lived with other people his whole life. He had a large family and shared a room through high school. Then before he got the apartment with the group, he shared a dorm with three other guys his first year at college. So he knows how to peacefully share a space, even if the other person didn’t. However, if they do, even better. As Lance calmed himself, he took a deep breath before unlocking the door. “Hey, sorry I’m here so late. I’m your new- OH MY GOD IT’S YOU.” He pointed accusingly at the offending form of his rival, who looked equally as horrified.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”


	2. Chapter Two: This Love (Will Be Your Downfall)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Love (Will Be Your Downfall) - Ellie Goulding

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Keith groaned, crossing his arms.

The idiot in front of him was still pointing with a gaping mouth when Shiro walked around the corner from Keith’s room. Shiro smiled, his face questioning but friendly as he lifted a brow. “Oh? Is this your roommate? Did you actually end up knowing each other?” Keith looked back at Shiro, making a face of displeasure, before his attention was drawn back.

“What are you doing here?” Lance frowned, finally finding his words again. Keith figured that had to have been hard for him to accomplish.

“Uh, obviously moving into my new apartment. Which I seem to have somehow wound up sharing with you, unfortunately.” Keith crossed his arms, squaring up to the angry alpha. “Didn’t you check the papers our landlord gave us after we agreed to not meet before moving in?”

“You did what?” Shiro exclaimed, mouth gaping, but Keith was fully focused on Lance.

“What do you mean? You obviously didn’t read them either. You were just as shocked as I was! Don’t act so high and mighty!” Lance, whether consciously or instinctively, started to release pheromones, making his displeasure known. Keith’s eyes narrowed at the instinctual need to cower at the alpha and stood up taller instead. Instincts could fuck off if they wanted Keith to submit to this idiot. Both boys were practically growling at each other, their glares darkening.

“Okay guys, calm down. I’m not sure what’s going on but-” Shiro stopped talking, his eyes widening as he looked at Lance. Keith knew the pheromones must have reached him. Shiro gave Lance a forced smile before grabbing Keith by the upper arm and dragging him towards his room. “Actually, would you give us a moment?” He called back over his shoulder, not stopping his quick pace down the hall.

“Shiro???” Keith quickly shut the door behind himself, heart thumping at his guardian's abnormal reaction. Though even he could guess why Shiro had acted like this, he just didn’t want to have the conversation that was about to happen. “Shiro, let me explain-”

“I’m your guardian, Keith. Not to mention you’re like a little brother to me! How am I supposed to react when I find out not only did you not properly check who your roommate was but also failed to find out that he was an alpha?” Keith looked to the side, not wanting to meet Shiro’s stern gaze. “You didn’t know, right?”

“I mean, I did at least look over the information. I just didn’t think it was a big deal-”

Shiro let out a hissing sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I know you’re an adult and that your heat isn’t as bad since you’re a recessive omega, but this is just plain irresponsible, Keith! Do you know the consequences of what could happen-”

“Shiro! I’m not going to have sex with-”

“It’s not just about that!” Shiro interrupted, showing a rare scowl. “You know what I mean, Keith. Adam and I agreed you needed to expand your world. I know that we’ve...inhibited you by sheltering you. You’ve been doing really well these days and I am proud of what you’ve accomplished. I just feel like you rushed this.” 

Keith hated talks like this. Just because he was an omega, both of his guardians had been extra paranoid about Keith living alone. But as Shiro had said, Keith was a recessive omega. He didn’t exhibit a lot of the physiological differences that omegas did. He wouldn’t describe himself as cute or fragile, nor would he ever want to. Being omega didn’t change who he was, it was just a miniscule part of how he was identified. It meant nothing to his daily life. Even his heats didn’t affect his daily life. Normally recessive omegas were like that, having less symptoms. The only problems were some excessive weariness and physical fatigue. In most cases, Keith was more like a beta than anything else. The fact that Keith, even as an adult, still couldn’t be seen without his second gender being the first thing anyone thought about- it didn’t sit well with him. It was also why Keith had a hard time bringing it up. He didn’t want to. If someone thought of him as an alpha or beta, and Keith told them he was actually an omega, they immediately treated him differently. He hated it.

Shiro rubbed the back of his neck. “I know why you signed a lease like you did, Keith. We aren’t idiots, but we let you do it because you have to make mistakes in life to learn from it. I’m just worried that this mistake might end up being too much for you.”

“You know why I moved out?” Keith looked at Shiro, his face flushing.

Shiro’s face also turned red. “We may.....be a bit over affectionate sometimes. In front of you. And make you uncomfortable. We know we should tone it down, I just-” Both brothers looked away, uncomfortable. “Okay, backtrack. You moved out to give us space. I get that.” Shiro let out a breath, trying to reel the conversation back in. “I appreciate the thought but you don’t have to do that. We were never uncomfortable around you and we wouldn’t feel offended if you asked us to stop when we get..... to be too much.”

“You shouldn’t have to do that in your own home.” Keith muttered, feeling embarrassed over this whole situation now that the consequences of his rash actions are being thrown in his face like this. “Besides, it’s not like I’m judging you guys. I just thought I was a bother- or, I mean-” Keith looked down, scowling. “I know you said not to worry about it, but I”m well past the point of living with my brother. It was just time to start living independently.”

Shiro made a pained face, not taking Keith’s poor attempt at redirecting his mistake. “You are not, and have never been, a bother to me. Not before your dad passed away, and definitely not when I took you in after.” Shiro placed a hand on Keith’s shoulder, looking him in the eyes. Everything about him screamed how serious he was, and Keith wanted to believe him, but the voices in the back of his mind still blamed him for not being strong enough. For making so many mistakes because he couldn’t just stop and think for a moment. He had to charge into every situation when his emotions ran wild. “Listen, I’m not going to say move out.... anymore. Though I’m still not comfortable with this, I know you can handle any situation because I believe in you.”

“Gross.”

“Keith.”

“Right. Continue this weird bro-bonding session.”

Shiro sighed, though he couldn’t hide the smirk on his face. “I’m sorry for pulling the guardian card, okay? Just promise if anything happens you’ll ask for help. Both of us are always here for you.”

“I know.” Keith whispered, rubbing his arm. “I- uh- think of you guys as my family so- well.” Keith’s face burned as he looked away, muttering, “just, uh- just know I appreciate everything. Really.” He really wasn’t one for heart to heart talks, he wasn’t used to it.

Shiro threw his arm around Keith’s neck, rubbing his knuckles playfully into Keith’s scalp. “What are you so embarrassed for? You’re gonna make this even weirder than it already is.” He let go and Keith immediately went about smoothing down his staticy hair. “Let’s go back. Your roommate is probably ready to start a revolt out there, given the state of those pheromones.”

“He’s a bit much.” Keith muttered, trying not to grind his teeth. “I don’t know what his problem is with me either. He keeps somehow thinking all these accidents are a plot against him, saying were rivals or something equally as ridiculous.” Keith sighed, already feeling tired and weak from the heavy pheromones filling up the apartment. “And he keeps releasing these every time he picks a fight like he’s egging me to do it back. Which is ridiculous since I’m not an alpha anyway. How am I going to survive living here for a year without knocking him out and shipping him across the ocean?”

“I think you can handle it.” Shiro smirked before pushing Keith out into the hallway. “Leave everything that’s happened at the door, okay? Fresh start. I’m sure you two just need to work through these misunderstandings first.”

“That would be fine, if he had enough sense to do so.”

“I know someone else who’s more likely to jump to his own conclusions than listen when something upsets him.” Shiro raised a brow as they exited back out into the shared living room. “Ah, is this your friend? Hello.” Keith watched Lance’s business partner awkwardly give a little half wave and chuckle before making exaggerated faces and hand movements to Lance as if the two brothers weren’t right in front of them. “Sorry I didn’t introduce myself properly to either of you before taking Keith away.” He put out a hand for either boy to grab. “Takashi Shirogane, just Shiro is fine.”

Lance’s beefy friend was the first to smile, albeit with a strange expression, and take Shiro’s outstretched hand. “Hunk. I mean, that’s me. I’m Hunk. Hunk Garret” Lance ran his hand down his face as Shiro nodded with a placid smile. “Great. Uh-” Hunk motions next to him. “Lance.”

“I can introduce myself, Hunk.” Lance frowned, but his voice was obviously softer towards his friend than it had been to Keith. 

“Sure you can, but were you going to?” He shot back, frowning at his friend’s sour mood. Lance opened his mouth, paused, then crossed his arms. “RIght.” Keith watched as some kind of wordless conversation went on between the two of them. Right as it started to become awkward, Lance let out an annoying, exaggerated sigh.

“Okay. We’re both at fault for this. Adults should know to thoroughly check these things out before getting into these types of situations so-” Lance frowned, his face getting redder. Though Keith couldn’t tell if it was from embarrassment or holding in his attitude. He figured Lance would burst before the prior one. “What I mean to say is-” After a couple restarts, Lance finally managed to spit out something coherent. “Let's give it a fresh start.”

“Seriously?” Keith groaned, knowing Shiro was giving him an overly pleased look. That ‘I told you so’ type of smug look.

“What- of course I’m being serious!” Lance huffed. Keith could practically see him bristling again, though Lance was obviously trying to hold it in. “We work next door to each other. Live together. We are literally going to be seeing each other every day. I don’t....” Lance made a pained face. “I mean, I can withstand the torture of roomming with you if we start over.”

“The torture of roomming with me?!” Keith growled, brows furrowing.

At the same time, Hunk elbowed Lance and hissed. “Seriously?”

“Okay we both feel like this situation sucks. It’s out in the open. We both agree!” Lance whined, rubbing his side. “But listen, if this whole situation could get any worse, it’s gonna be because of us okay?” Keith had to admit, this was indeed the least painful conversation he’s had with the idiot. In a way, he guessed that meant Lance was trying to be civil. He guessed.

“So new start?”

“New start. Completely fresh slate. Never met you before. Who are you? Oh you work in the shop across from me? WOW, what a coincidence!” Lance’s voice grew higher the more animated he got. Keith furrowed his brows.

“Uh, duh. You already knew that.”

“What? Ugh, I was pretending- nevermind. Listen.” Lance extended his hand to Keith, wearing a sheepish smile. Keith’s eyes widened at the docile look and tone of voice. “Nice to meet you. I’m Lance McClain. Sorry I was too busy to talk to you before we both signed this lease, but hopefully we can live together without making the other’s life miserable. And uh-” When Keith didn’t immediately take his hand, Lance stuttered a bit before looking down, actually looking a little ashamed for once. “Sorry for jumping to conclusions. I don’t actually hate you....right now....for once....”

Keith let out a sigh, letting Lance sweat a bit more, before taking his hand with a smirk. “We’ll see how long that lasts.” Lance let out a bark of laughter. Hunk visibly relaxed as Shiro put a hand on Keith’s shoulder.

“Okay, you guys have a lot to unpack. All your stuff is at least in the house so-” He turned and looked at Lance. “Do you two want another hand to help?” Keith rolled his eyes at Shiro’s lame joke, knowing he was exaggeratedly waving his prosthetic hand at that moment. The silver sheer was hand to miss.

“I never turn down free help.” Lance grinned, already looking much more relaxed than before.

Maybe this won’t be so terrible. Keith thought, moving to his room to continue unpacking. ‘I guess I don’t hate him either.’ Keith smirked as he stole a glance back at the trio exiting the front door. ‘Right now at least.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have any questions about how omegaverse works within this fic, I'll answer them happily. I'm not used to writing it so I've taken the liberty to take the bits I liked about it *shrug*
> 
> Oh, and would it be easier for me to put whose pov each chapter is maybe in the author's note up top? I try and let it be fairly obvious within the first few sentences but I also don't wanna make it stupid hard to read this silly little fic if that throws people off. :)
> 
> And as always, thanks for reading. :3c


	3. Chapter Three: False Confidence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> False Confidence - Noah Kahan

After a week, Lance had begun to get into the swing of things. They actually had regular customers, as regular as seeing someone a couple days a week could be. Still, Lance and Hunk were both basking in the afterglow of their dreams coming true. The only way Lance’s day could have begun to get better was if Pidge could walk in with a beautiful woman wanting to work for Lance. As if that could ever-

“Lance?” Pidge furrowed her brows, his expression pinching in disgust. “You’re drooling.”

“Drool- Nah, no. That’s-” Lance quickly pinched his arm, letting out a hiss at the pain. Okay. Okay. This was real. Okay.

“Lance?”

“Okay. Hi, Lance here. Man of dreams, for many women. Slayer of hearts. Master of love.” Ended with his signature smile. Perfect. He was back to reality.

“Oh please, you’re barely a master of coffee.” Pidge groaned. “Are you sure you wanna work here?” Lance avidly watched Pidge’s new friend give a skeptical look at him before chuckling.

“I’m sure I need a job, so if he would consider hiring me-”

“Hired. Done. You want to start tomorrow? I’ll personally give you some tips-”

“Lance!” Hunk and Pidge both yelled at the same time, though it was Hunk who leaned over him. “What are you doing while I’m in the back, slaving away? Isn’t this the type of thing you should discuss with me first? You know, considering I’m your business partner?”

“Sorry Hunk.” Lance gave a sheepish smile, before straightening up his back and deepening his voice. “This is Pidge’s new friend, uh-”

“See, you didn’t even let me introduce her! What kind of business practices are you running?” Pidge sighed.

“I just trust your recommendation-”

“Allura. I’m an exchange student, and I actually just started this semester with Katie-”

“Just call me Pidge already.”

“-so I’m not too familiar with the area and customs of your country yet.” Allura’s eyes lit up as she looked at Pidge. “But Katie-” Pidge groaned. “Has been an excellent friend and guide for me.”

“Why do you need a job anyways? You have high end clothes, a personal driver, and live in that really bouiji area off campus.” Pidge asked, voice slightly muffled from hiding the happy smile on her face with her hand after Allura called her a friend. “You bored or something?”

“I, well-” Allura looked away, a sad look darkening her features. Lance noticed instantly and decided to reel the conversation into a better place for this beauty’s sake.

“Sometimes the best way to learn is to experience it yourself, Pidge. Not that you would know since you spend your whole life behind a screen.”

She bristled. “The outdoors are for meatheads like you, Lance. My screens are beautiful things of pure science and the high art of technology. And furthermore-”

Lance rolled his eyes at how easily it was to get Pidge ranting about her precious tech. As she rambled on about the beautiful symmetry of a harddrive or whatever she was going on about, Lance decided to enjoy the beautiful symmetry of the lady in front of him. She was absolutely gorgeous. Hair so light it was practically white, flowing down her shoulders and back like a goddess, framing a face that was somehow both delicate and strong. Lance may or may not have started drooling again. Allura caught his eye and smiled, raising a brow. She clearly wasn’t interested in him, yet, but Lance liked her friendly, open attitude. Even though it might not have been the WHOLE reason he wanted to hire her, he did think she would do a good job at his shop. A good customer service smile meant everything, something a certain flower shop owner could learn a thing or two about.

“Okay, I’m not really against hiring some help.” Hunk broke into Pidge’s rant with a soft smile aimed at Allura. “But I would like to know a bit about who we’re hiring outside of Lance’s immediate ranking.”

“Hey!” Lance frowned. “I’m a great ranker. She’ll be great here.” Allura chuckled as Pidge rolled her eyes.

“While I thank you for the vote of confidence, I have no problem going through an interview.” She looked at Pidge, as if making sure the wording was correct. With a brief nod, Allura turned back shining. “As Katie said, I am a foreign exchange student at the Garrison University. I’m a political science major so I only share the one elective class with her. It’s so strange to be around so many different people, like at the college. My old country-” Her smile faltered, but she was quick to plaster it back on. Lance noticed that neither Pidge nor Hunk seemed to catch it, but he did. “Well, I just meant that I did not have as much opportunity to commune with so many different types of people.”

“She’s popular. Like super popular.” Pidge grinned, almost conspiratorially. “It’s like watching a whole different world or a cheesy tv show.”

“Only because you’d rather code than meet other people.” Lance sighed.

“Not that there’s anything wrong with that!” Hunk grinned, having done a fair amount of the same work back in college that Pidge was doing now. “Certainly will pay far better than our little shop ever could.”

Lance gasped. “Are you planning on abandoning me for computers like Pidge?”

“When did I abandon you?” Pidge huffed, crossing her arms.

“You constantly turn me down when I invite you to hang out!”

“Because you were always going to parties or similarly... lively places. I just prefer smaller crowds.” Pidge shrugged, turning to Allura. “What was your home like?” Lance let out a small, fake sob at being ignored. No one even noticed though.

“Oh? Well-” She got a wistful look in her eyes before looking down. “It was really beautiful. It was a kind place, or so I thought it was. I find I am extremely homesick.”

“Not that I’m wanting you to leave, but when do you plan to go back? Even for a visit? You must miss your family...”

Lance couldn’t see Allura’s face, but he watched her shoulders tense and her hand grip her elbow as if to ground herself. “Yes. Yes I miss them very much. I don’t think I will be able to return for quite a while though. I don’t think I’d be able to leave there again if I did.” Without thinking, Lance reached out across the counter and squeezed her shoulder. She looked up, a melancholic smile on her face. “It’s fine. I truly am excited for this new adventure with all of you. I aim to better myself in many ways before returning home.”

“Therefore, you want to work at a cafe?” Pidge closed her eyes as she thought about it. “I’m sure there are better jobs or even internships that would be better for your goals though. What is it you want to do after college?”

“An ambassador.”

“And you want to work here still?” Pidge’s face scrunched up in confusion.

“For your country?” Lance’s mouth fell open. “That’s super impressive! That’s like... pretty ambitious!” What the heck was he saying. Lance wanted to internally groan. He wasn’t stupid, he was an average student to be honest, but just thinking of what kind of qualifications and tests one must go through to get there... Lance didn’t want to admit it but Pidge was right. There was absolutely no reason for this extraordinary person to work with him. As much as he would love her to do so, she was almost overqualified just in presence and aspirations alone! “Uh, listen. I would love you to work here but, maybe, you should look into your options a bit more. I mean, this isn’t going to look so impressive on a resume.”

“I think you’re misunderstanding my intentions.” Allura shook her head, holding her hand out to stop the protests of the people before her. “I’m not aiming to ‘look good on a resume’ by working here. When I say bettering myself, I mean in my own eyes only.” Her shoulders pulled back as she straightened her back, looking Lance dead in the eyes with a practiced poise and confidence Lance would never replicate. “I’ve spent a long time looking for the flaws in myself, the weaknesses that lead to my own mistakes. I want to learn as much about the world as I can so that I’m able to help anyone that needs it. I refuse to find myself in a situation where I have to choose between myself or others. I want to become strong enough to choose both.” She was certain in whatever truth she believed, driven. Lance only fell harder at the determined fire in her eyes. She was an actual goddess, he was sure. “Or well, that’s why I want to work here, personally.” As if realizing her tangent, a light blush dusted her cheeks around the curved, pink tattoos.

“Well that got heavy for a coffee shop... pastries anyone?” Hunk held up a cooled tray of baked goods he had been about to load in the display case before Allura had even walked in.

“Hunk-” Both of his friends groaned but Allura just grinned and thanked him. Lance wanted to pause the whole world and stare at her happy face forever, even as she shoved a gooey sugar bun into it. 

“I’m not entirely convinced that this is what’s best for your goals, but that’s not for me or Lance to decide. Or Pidge-” He quickly added, casting the gremlin devouring the buns a sideways look. “But we have no problem with you working here.” Lance’s face lit up. “And I want you to know you can consider the two of us your friends as well, Allura.” Hunk gave her a soft smile which she returned. Lance and Pidge shared a look. This was wholesome yet was getting a little cringy. Still, sometimes you needed a bit of this, Lance thought.

Not to be outdone, Lance shoved his thumb into his chest. “If you ever have a problem, feel free to come to us. We may have just met you, but you’re our friend now so- well, I think we’re pretty great listeners.” He gave her two thumbs up, making her giggle. He could feel his own heart thumping wildly in his chest.

“When he isn’t daydreaming about pretty girls, sure I guess he could be considered an okay-ish listener.” Pidge grinned, obviously enjoying the overdramatic, offended look on Lance’s face.

“Oh, but when you were talking about this place, you said that they were both great listeners and that despite his stupid appearance, you could trust Lance with anything?” Allura posed it as a question, but the mischievous glint in her eyes said everything. She was going to fit in with them just fine. 

Meanwhile Pidge was letting out an ungodly shriek, pulling the strings of her hoodie so that her face was hidden except for her nose and mouth. Lance was poking her cheek through the material, cooing at how cute she was, acting like that when she obviously thought of him as a role model. Out of the corner of his eye, Lance saw Allura and Hunk laughing at them. His own grin softened and he rubbed the top of Pidge’s head which was currently just a fuzzy green mass of cotton. “I would trust you with anything too, Pidge. You’re an amazing kid.” There was a pause in her screeching as she peeked through the hoodie hole.

“Dude that’s super embarrassing. How can you just out and say that kind of thing?”

“What?” Lance felt his own face burn. “You literally said the same thing!”

“I mean sure, but TECHNICALLY I didn’t say it, Allura did. For you to just out and say that-” She looked away, her hand over her mouth covering an obvious smirk. “How embarrassing.”

“You’re the embarrassment!”

“I’m the local gremlin at best!” Pidge tossed a pastry off of the second sheet Hunk had, hitting Lance in the face.

“My face!” Lance shouted, holding the offended spot that had an explosion of powdered sugar clinging on.

“My malasada! Aw. you food criminal.” Hunk cries out, looking at the fried doughnut sadly resting in a pile of its own sugar on the floor. “Can we not waste beautiful, beautiful food like this? What a national tragedy, or at least a tragedy for the space that could have held in my stomach before you ruined it.”

Pidge consoled Hunk over the deceased food as Lance worked on finalizing all the details of work with Allura. After he took her through the back for a quick run through of where everything was at inside, he took her out the back to the alley. Just to be thorough. No hidden motive. None. Lance watched Allura quickly turn to watch something at the end of the alley. Lance turned only to see Keith out checking on his outside plants.

“Ah it is about time for him to close shop today. Wednesdays are early days for him.” Lance mumbled to himself, crossing his arms.

“Oh, are you friends?” Allura smiled, clasping her hands in front of her. God she’s so proper and amazing, Lance internally melted before remembering what she said.

His face scrunched up as he screeched. “What no! Why would we-” He stopped himself, visibly deflating. He told himself to stop getting so worked up over him, and honestly the two had been much less hostile in their daily encounters. But something within Lance didn’t want Allura befriending Keith, didn’t want her to like Keith more than him. Even on a friend level. He looked up to see Keith staring wide eyed at them for Lance’s earlier outburst before rolling his eyes and grabbing the last pot to bring in. Lance frowned, looking away. “No, he is my roommate though.”

“Oh.” Allura’s face was obviously questioning but she didn’t push, only absentmindedly commented. “He seems nice, though a little standoffish.”

“What? Keith? Nice?” Lance bulked at her, horrified. “Are we seeing the same person?”

“Is he not? I haven’t met him yet but-” She trailed off, frowning as she, too, turned to stare at the empty space the flower shop owner left.

Lance felt something crawl inside his stomach. Something nasty and sharp. “Maybe you should keep it that way.”

“Don’t listen to him.” Pidge appears in the doorway, leaning against the frame with a smirk. “He’s just jealous that somehow that dour flower boy is more popular than him.”

“What- no- I-” Lance sputtered, feeling his face heat up at the blank look Allura was giving him. “I just don’t get along with him. Never have.”

“Well that’s true enough.” Pidge laughed. “Though the way you act towards him might have something to do with that.”

“I just think he’s shady. A really shady alpha.” Pidge bursts out laughing at that, but Lance just looks at Allura. His face is serious but internally he’s trying to hold down that throbbing, dark feeling inside of him. “Just watch out around him, is all I mean.”

“Well, I don’t really buy flowers or plants.” Allura mused. “I have no reason to talk to him, is what I mean. Or at least no reason to go to his store.” She shrugged. “Though as an omega, I’ll be as cautious as one would expect me to be around an alpha, if that is what you were worrying about.” Lance let out a relieved sigh only to turn and see Pidge looking at him strangely. It wasn’t teasing, but more like she was studying him. She did that sometimes. Especially when something interested her. Only this time, Lance wasn’t sure what caught his friend’s curiosity. That made him nervous.

Putting on a lazy grin, he ushered both ladies inside, taking one last look at the spot his rival had stood before heading inside himself. ‘Stop acting like this.’ He internally chided himself. ‘Just keep everything light and happy. You’re the best alpha here. You’re amazing.’ He repeated this in his head a bit, until his smile returned to looking confident and natural as he went back out to the counter where his friends were waiting on him. Waiting on the silly, outgoing Lance they knew. Seeing the happy looks on their faces as they talked, Lance pushed those sour feelings down. He could do this. If not for them, then for himself. Everyone had a part of themselves they didn’t want to show others. Lance just didn’t understand why Keith could so easily tear Lance’s out into the open. That horrible side of Lance that made his skin crawl. That jealous, angry side. That wasn’t him. Not the him he wanted others to see, at least.

“We’re going to head out, Lance.” Pidge called from the door, breaking Lance’s internal struggling thought.

“See you tomorrow then.” Allura smiled, waving. Lance felt the back of his neck warm as he smiled back at her.

“Sure, sure. Looking forward to it.”

“Ugh, lets go before he starts drooling again.”

Once they’d left, Hunk gave Lance a look. “What?”

“Are you okay? You don’t normally zone out like that especially around someone like Allura, without drooling.” Lance knew what Hunk really meant was ‘I know you too well and I can see you’re struggling with something’ and that made Lance tense.

“I’m okay big guy.” Lance chuckled, patting Hunk on the shoulder. “Just thinking about some stuff. No need to worry, I can handle it.” An alpha could handle anything alone. This should be nothing for Lance. So why did it bug him so much? “Come on, we still have a couple hours before close. We should be getting the last minute rush soon.” Sure enough, within half an hour, the last rush of the day hit and Lance could finally truly push those insecurities down as he focused on keeping up with orders. Just keep busy. Just keep pushing forward. Lance willed the two faces swirling around his mind out of his head. One with beautiful long, white hair. The other with silky, black hair in a stupid, stupid mullet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this started because I thought I would have more time in quarantine but instead my work hours have somehow increased????? Horrifying. So to keep my buffer chapters ready, I'll go to posting once per week for a bit. Hopefully just this week and the next? I haven't been able to write any more chapters these past two weeks T_T  
> (Not to mention I've been spoiling my animals extra in this nice weather so I haven't been sitting at home as much - safely just out on walks or car rides in the country, stay social distancing guys)
> 
> Anyways, next chapter will be up Monday next week. :) Thanks for reading <3


	4. Chapter Four: Don't Stop Me Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Don't Stop Me Now - Queen
> 
> Fav chapter so far (PIdge POV)

Pidge walked down the sidewalk, her bored gaze blankly staring out at nothing in particular. She hadn’t realized how quickly she would get used to having someone to hang out with on campus. It was Allura’s second day working at the cafe and, after an accident that nearly killed her precious laptop yesterday, Pidge decided to stay away from the cafe during her friend’s shift, if only for the sake of her electronic babies. Though she had been joking originally with Allura, Pidge really did have a lot of things to do anyways. She had multiple school projects with deadlines all approaching and some personal ones that she did on the side. Of course, she could practically binge them all in one night, with a large amount of caffeine, but if she could responsibly get them done then she wouldn’t have to be nagged by Hunk or Lance...

Thinking of Lance made her start to think of his recent behavior. He was always melodramatic, but normally it was just for the sake of making the others laugh. Pidge and Hunk had both long ago caught on that Lance wasn’t nearly as confident and happy as he appeared, but both had agreed that he seemed happier when they pretended not to notice. So that’s what she did, most of the time. Still, he was acting especially strange and it almost worried her. Pidge pondered on it while she waited for the crosswalk light to change so she could continue home. “Normally I would think it’s just that he’s jealous based on his crush on Allura, and it could be. Two rival alphas going after the new omega from a far away land that fate brought together. Ugh, sounds like a plot to one of those dramas that Hunk watches with his girlfriend.” Pidge stuck out her tongue in disgust before finally continuing her path home. “Still, I know he’s been friends with other alphas before. I mean, I’m an alpha after all.” Pidge sighed. “Maybe I just feed his weird alpha complex though.” That did always irk her a little, to be honest.

Given that she was a recessive alpha, Pidge was on the smaller, slimmer side of alphas. She always got mistaken for an omega. That didn’t matter to her though. Despite being a recessive alpha, she had unnaturally strong pheromones. When she truly got mad, she’s even seen other alpha’s collapse under the weight of her dominating presence. She was much more level-headed than her idiot of a friend though, so she rarely accidentally released her pheromones. It was considered rude to do so in public and could cause accidents since strong alpha pheromones could, at worst, paralyze an omega or even a beta in fear. Yet Hunk said Lance had been so angry over flower boy that he constantly released his pheromones in his presence? It wouldn’t be unnatural since Lance could be emotionally driven, but still. He had to be releasing some unnaturally strong pheromones for a beta like Hunk to tell, and Lance didn’t normally have pheromones that strong either.

Suddenly Pidge felt the road before her was familiar, but in a way she hadn’t meant it to be. Instead of the road her bus stop was on, she found herself on the road the two shop owners in question worked on. “Well shoot.” Pidge huffed, not realizing how lost in thought she had been. “I didn’t mean to end up here.” She would normally just go into the cafe since she was already here, but she had told Allura she wouldn’t be in. She didn’t really want to explain that she’d been lost in thought and ended up here anyways, even after telling Allura she couldn’t walk home with her. Pidge crossed her arms before a thought hit her. There was definitely something interesting here she could do instead. Procrastinating those projects a bit longer wouldn’t hurt any...

“Hmm, let’s see what kind of guy it really is who got my favorite coffee shop owner frazzled like this...” Pidge’s face curled into what she could only guess looked like a malicious grin. Good.

Pidge looked into the cafe window without walking too close. Good, they looked busy. Feeling like a cool secret agent investigating, Pidge hummed the mission impossible theme song as she casually walked through the flower shop doors. It’s an excessively cute shop for the thuggish looking owner. Even the door chime is like a cute little chirp. “Welco...me.” Pidge turned to see Keith looking at her with a face full of annoyed suspicion. Honestly he looked ridiculous, but she guessed it was funny how despite that, he let out a slightly gruff, “flowers and plants on the red table are on sale.”

Pidge grinned as she casually strolled around the store, making sure to stop at the table he went out of his way to tell her about. Pidge knew nothing about plants but she had a feeling they were well taken care of. ‘I mean, they aren’t dying.... Probably?’ She mused to herself. As she walked to the opposite side of the store, she overheard Keith talking with the only other customer currently in the store. Despite the way she’d always heard Lance describe him, Keith talked with a mellowed, almost awkward tone as he described intricate care instructions of what Pidge felt was a real pain in the ass plant. ‘Should just get a dog or something at that point, probably less work.’

She snorted and looked up from the table full of cute and funky little plants with a chalk sign labeling them as succulents in curling, delicate letters. ‘What a personality gap.’ Pidge wanted to laugh but the sight before her ended up making her sigh. Both storefronts had relatively large windows throughout to let in natural light, and through the one she was currently standing by she could see the others. As in the three other people she would consider friends standing at the cafe’s window opposite hers. Allura just smiled and waved, going back to work immediately after. Lance was angrily pointing and obviously ranting though she had no idea what he was saying. It wouldn’t have taken much brain power to guess what kind of lunacy he was spouting though. Hunk on the other hand waved and did an over-dramatic slow wink, conspiratorially. His movements made it easy to tell what he was mouthing to her. “He thinks I’m infiltrating the enemy? That sounds kinda fun actually.”

Just as Pidge was starting to think of little pranks she could do to start annoying Keith that would make Lance happy, a shadow falls over her. She turns to look just as Keith narrows his eyes out the window, looking rather exasperated. “Are they making a fuss over there again? How many times do I have to hear customers complain about them?” With a heavy sigh, he put his head into his palm. “And I thought it would be peaceful having a cafe next door.”

“Unpleasant neighbors?” Pidge smirked as Keith frowned at her.

“You’re one of them, kid.”

“Kid?” Pidge bristled. “I’m not even that much younger-”

Keith cut her off. “I don’t mind if you’re here as a customer, but if you’re going to goof off like you do over there, then get out. I don’t want you breaking anything.”

“If anyone knows how to be careful, it’s me.” She scoffed, turning away. “I’m practically the most careful-” Pidge let out a pained gasp as her hip hit the corner of the table after she tripped over her own feet. She barely caught herself as Keith simultaneously grabbed the table and wrapped an arm around her shoulder to steady them both. The neatly lined up pots shake before finally settling peacefully.

Keith raised a brow but Pidge definitely caught the hint of a smirk on his face. Almost as if to mockingly say ‘the most careful, huh?’ She paused as she smelled a strange change in the air, but quickly smirked back at him. “Ah, so he does smile.” She joked.

Keith instantly frowned, letting her go, as if to prove her wrong. He even went so far as to take a step back. Pidge tried to hold in the laughter threatening to burst out. “Can I help you with something?”

A plan was forming in her mind. This was too good to pass up. “Yeah, actually. The cafe could use some color, you know? Some pizzazz. Do people still use pizzazz? They should, it’s a great word-” Keith raised a brow, as if telling her to get on with it. She frowned but quickly started back up again. “Well, normally Lance, oh he’s the one glaring at us from the cafe right now-”

Keith looked up, his face showing just how annoyed he was with her friends. “We’re acquainted, unfortunately.”

“Oh?”

“Roommates.”

“O~H?” Pidge’s eyes widened as her voice pitched up, some giggles spilling out. “You can’t be serious. And that idiot still can’t tell? Oh my god.” She bursts out laughing just as Keith starts to ask what she was talking about. “That has to suck. Oh man, I can’t believe it. I can’t believe he didn’t tell me. That’s like.... comedy 101 isn’t it? Two people who hate each other end up moving in together, cohabiting. Please let me know if you start making friendship bracelets two months in.”

Keith sighed, looking both embarrassed and frustrated. “I don’t hate him... much.” Pidge grinned, making the flower shop owner look away with reddening cheeks. “Stop it.”

“Flower boy, you are a conundrum.”

“Flower boy?” Keith’s brows narrowed but he had an actual smile on his face. Not that it lasted long. “I just don’t hate him, okay? Stop making it weird. Besides, that idiot is the one who has it out for me. With the way he acts-” Keith cut himself off with a frustrated hiss.

“Oh, he has a weird perception that you’re trying to out-alpha him or something.”

“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard-”

“I KNOW!” Pidge yelled, throwing her hands up in the air. She secretly got a thrill that flower boy flinched back from the sudden outburst. “I mean.... Oh, I know it is. Especially when you aren’t even an alpha.” Pidge smirked, watching his reaction. Keith’s eyes widened in surprise and Pidge felt a pinch of remorse. “Sorry, I can kinda lose my filter when I get excited. Did- did you not want anyone to know? I promise I’m not someone to just go out talking about this stuff-” She really wasn’t, but she also didn’t supply that it was much more fun that Lance didn’t know and that that might have also heavily factored in her keeping it a secret.

Keith held up a hand to stop her ramble, shaking his head. “I’m only going to say this once. I really don’t care about all of that nonsense politics about our second gender. I never hid the fact that I’m an omega. If people want to judge others based on looks, I”m not here to stop them-”

“Oh ho, wait a minute!” Pidge grabbed his arm as his face darkened in anger. “Come on, I”m not one to talk. Look at this scrawny gal, Flower boy! Alpha through and through, yet I’m not one of his ‘weird alpha rivals’ cause I don’t pass his stupid ‘perfect alpha test’ or whatever. I promise I wasn’t saying that to judge you or anything.”

Keith smirked. “He has a perfect alpha test?”

Pidge looked around before leaning in conspiratorially. “He puts himself at the top of the list, but I don’t even think he fits his definition of perfect.” That made Pidge frown, thinking of Lance’s recent behavior. “As stupid as it is, you probably fit it better than he does, which is why he’s been so on edge with you.”

“How am I supposed to help that?”

“Well-” Pidge looked to the side, only for her eyes to stray to the wall clock. “Oh man, is that right?” She pulled out her phone and sure enough it was super late. The sun had set and everything. “Oh no, I have stuff to do!” Pidge quickly made sure she had her school bag she dropped when she almost fell earlier, and started towards the door. “Think of it this way, doesn’t that mean you’re just his type?”

“That doesn’t make me happy.”

Pidge shrugged before turning back to him. “You really should stop by the cafe one day, though. As a business partner of course, not the mate thing.” Keith’s face pinches in disgust and Pidge laughs. “I think if you’re roommates, it’ll be easier to get along if you two actually, you know, get along? You know, not hating that you end up seeing each other every day?”

“I’m not really into giving myself headaches.”

“Then come over to see me, anyways! I’m great company as long as I’m not close to a deadline.”

“And today? I think I remember you saying you had important stuff to do?” He crossed his arms but his posture was relaxed for the first time since Pidge walked in.

“Oh, of course I’ll easily manage if I leave now. See ya later flower boy!”

“Whatever you say, cafe spy.”

‘Ah, so he noticed Hunk too.’ Pidge mused. Still, she saluted him as she teased. “Ah, he jokes too!” She bolted through the door as Keith let out an annoyed groan, but she caught him smiling despite himself. The cutesy bell and store seemed to fit him surprisingly well, despite it all.

As she started down the street, she took one last look at the flower store. To her surprise, Keith was staring at the cafe while shaking his head. She followed his gaze and saw Lance pressed up against his window. He was making faces, like a three year old. Pidge sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose right above her glasses. She suddenly remembered the moment she realized Keith’s not-so-secret secret. As he caught her earlier, she could lightly smell his pheromones. He must be just ending his heat. “Wow. How dumb can he be? Flower boy practically spews out omega pheromones. Lance can be so freaking dense.” She laughs at both boys’ idiocy, but quickly quiets as she starts to plan out her projects. Those really are going to be due soon-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a lot going on right now in the world isn't there? I wasn't going to post this for a while longer, but I've found myself needing to take breaks to read goofy shit and de-stress with everything going on and my own personal issues I'm thinking about. So I figured why not post a silly chapter in case anyone else needed a mental health break for five minutes before going back to the fight and grind going on right now.
> 
> No set upload schedule, let chaos ensue. I got promoted and I'm tired and I got other stuff I'm dealing with irl rn. But ch 5 is already written. I'm just not super happy with it so I might put off posting it to correct it. Who knows anymore. -_-


	5. Chapter Five: Haven't Had Enough

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Haven't Had Enough - Marianas Trench
> 
> Keith and Lance can sometimes, maybe, come to some kind of an understanding. They guess.

It’s not like Keith likes waking up each morning and coming out to find a glaring Lance. He just doesn’t understand why it’s fully his problem to fix, especially now that he knows why Lance is acting this way. An alpha complex was it? More than his second gender, it was probably Lance’s own idiotic brain that led him to being second to others. “Why do I have to deal with this?” Keith grumbled as he opened the door to his room. Their rooms were on opposite sides of the hall, with the bathroom at the very end of the hall, opposite their living room space. So Keith couldn’t help the sense of relief that came over him as he dipped his head out of his doorway. He had expected to see a head turn to glower at him from the couch as he poked out from his room but no one was there. Why did he feel relieved though? Why does he always feel the need to tiptoe around the places he lives at? He pays rent here too! Damn it! Keith scowled, closing his door with more force than the poor frame needed. Did he see a bit of wood splinter off just then? That was a future Keith problem.

Somehow making himself pissed, Keith stomped into the living room and turned to go to the kitchen. And of course today wouldn’t actually be an exception for Keith either, as he came face to face with Lance, somehow already pouting. “What is it now? Don’t like the way I leave my room?”

Lance scoffs and looks away, but doesn’t stop making his bottom lip puff out like a child. “You stomp, and apparently slam doors.”

“I do.” Keith agreed, crossing his arms. “Feel free to listen again as I stomp back to my room then.” Keith let out a frustrated hiss as he practically started to run away. He’d just get something quick for breakfast at a convenience store before going to work. This was stupid. He should have paid closer attention to the paperwork. He should have actually met up with his roommate. He should have been smarter about all of this, then he wouldn’t be ten steps away from slamming, and possibly breaking, his own door.

“Wait!” Keith paused at the high pitched urgency in Lance’s voice. They stared at each other for a moment, Lance’s expressions moving too fast for Keith to deceiver what was going on.

“Any moment now would be good. You know, to tell me what I’m waiting for.”

“I, uh- well.” Lance put his head down. Keith could hear his teeth grinding as his ears turned slightly red. “Shit, I-” Finally, as Keith was about to just go get ready instead of waiting around for Lance to regain the ability of human speech, Lance practically screeched out. “What was Pidge doing over with you a couple nights ago?”

“Been really sitting on this one, huh?”

“Don’t try and avoid this! I tried asking her but she won’t answer me.”

“Probably thinks you’re stupid.”

“Stop calling me stupid!” Keith’s eyes grew wide. Maybe it was the tone of his voice or the instant burst of pheromones, but something made him uncomfortable about the way Lance reacted.

“I-” Keith blinked, watching Lance. “I’m sorry.” It didn’t sound genuine to even Keith’s ears. Not that it wasn’t, just that Keith was so shocked that he couldn’t put much emotion into his voice.

“Whatever, just answer my question.” Lance didn’t even acknowledge his apology, he even almost seemed angrier from it. For some damn reason that Keith couldn’t understand, nor wanted to for that matter. The more he found out about the inner workings of Lance’s brain, the more it pissed him off. 

Still, that attitude irked Keith. “You mean why did you send a kid over to my shop to mess with me during work hours?” Keith squared up, annoyed that he was still shorter than Lance despite raising up to his full height. Damn alphas always have to be so tall. Keith wasn’t short by any means and normally had no qualms about being an omega, but sometimes he just really wanted to tower over a dumbass alpha. Kind of like what Lance was doing now, having picked up on Keith’s own aggressive stance.

“Trying to intimidate me from all the way down there after redirecting my question again?”

Keith felt his neck burn. “I’m not even that much shorter than you, id-” Keith paused, his mouth still open to finish the insult. But instead he closed it, clenching his jaw. How dare Lance just get so upset at Keith for making childish insults towards him, only to do the same back! How dare he make Keith feel guilty for almost doing it again! This isn’t like him, normally Keith had no problems finishing fights others wanted to start. He was confident he could, too. The only problem is, Keith actually did want to get along with his roommate, in a way that irked him severely. Pidge was right, it was hell living with someone who hated you. Keith didn’t even hate Lance, he just hated the way Lance acted around him. He was more... generally annoyed by the strange entity known as Lance McClain. “What happened to fresh starts?” Keith grumbled, sitting down on a stool by the counter. Now Lance absolutely towered over him.

“Are- are you pouting?”

“Shut up.” Keith could feel his face heating up. He hated being caught acting like a child. He must have subconsciously started to pick up habits from his rather dramatically inclined roommate. Lance didn’t say anything and Keith finally looked up to see him trying to hold in laughter. “I said shut up.”

“I didn’t even say anything though!” Lance complained, though an annoying chuckle escaped his lips after a moment. “I didn’t send her over, by the way. She’s a human free to do what she wants. You think I could possibly control her? She runs me in circles.”

Keith thought of the tornado that was in his shop and sighed. “I figured it was a stupid prank. You guys were even doing secret communications through the window.”

“Secret communications?” Lance frowned before bursting out laughing. “You mean me being pissed you’d obviously held her captive? Plus, I saw you make a move on her! I don’t care either way but she is an alpha, despite her looks.”

Keith wouldn’t say it to Lance’s face anymore, if only to avoid the headache from his screeching, but Lance was truly an idiot in his mind. “I think you should spend more time worrying about doing your job well, rather than playing make believe with my life.” ‘Considering how much he seems to fantasize about this imaginary life I have’ Keith griped in his head, ‘I’m surprised he has time for anything else.’ “She tripped over her own two feet and I caught her before she broke my shop. Besides, I also knew she was an alpha. I have no use for an alpha, now or ever.” To Lance, Keith could tell that sounded like a challenge given that Lance still thought of Keith as an alpha. To Keith, he just wanted to prove Lance wrong. He didn’t want to just out and say he was an omega. He absolutely hated the way people changed the moment he said it. He hated the way they almost fetishized him, babied him. His temper, which before was antagonizing and intimidating, was now ‘just a temper tantrum’ or some similarly gross description. He was also treated like he was fragile and cute, two things Keith had definitely never thought of himself as and never wanted to. He knew he didn’t fit the typical omega stereotype and the only way to stop those voices in his head calling him ‘wrong’ or ‘broken’ was to completely reject that part of himself. Most of all, right now, he didn’t want Lance to suddenly change his attitude towards him because of that. Keith told himself it didn’t matter whether he was an Omega or not, but it was still hard to deal with society’s resulting attitude towards him. Keith didn’t like thinking about things he couldn’t control.

Not privy to Keith’s racing thoughts, Lance continued the childish squabble. “Screw you Keith, I have a great work ethic!” Lance spit, but it didn’t have much fire behind it. It was stupid of him, but this is what Keith wanted. If Lance were to accept him because he was an omega, then that was like losing in a way. Lance would just feel like he didn’t need to compete with an omega, which would make Keith feel inadequate and wrong. Like he was less of a person. Not worthy to even be seen as someone worth being a rival. He wanted Lance to get over this weird delusion of his while looking at Keith for who he was, or who Lance thought he was. Keith sighed into his palm, eyebrows knitting together in annoyance at his own convoluted thoughts. He wanted to be seen not as an alpha or an omega, but as an actual person. Secondary gender be damned. “You’re the one chatting on the job.” And Lance had a long way to go before he finally started listening to Keith’s actual words, it seemed.

“She wanted me to accept an, obviously, imaginary job offer from you. I declined, by the way.”

“What?” Lance scowled but Keith just sighed, explaining her idea. “Why would I need your help to run the cafe?” Lance scoffed.

“Were you listening at all?” Keith groaned. “I mean- ugh, I don’t care anymore.” Keith kicked off of the stool, going to his room to change. “I have no need to go to your cafe. Ever.”

Lance was quiet the whole time Keith got dressed, even as he was going back out to the living room and grabbing his keys hanging by the door. Just as he goes to reach for the door, Lance calls out. “I’m sorry. I knew what you meant.” Keith raised a brow, and Lance sighed. He didn’t look happy about it, but he came closer anyways. “Putting flowers and stuff in the cafe. It would be a good idea.” Keith’s mouth has to be hanging wide open. Why is he suddenly changing around and acting all nice? Keith’s confusion only lasts a moment, just like Lance’s rationality. “But I refuse to buy them from you.”

“Are you serious right now?” Keith wanted to punch him. Why even stop him if all he wanted to do was brag about doing business from another floral shop? Keith didn’t need his patronage or advertisement. He was right next door for gods sake! If anyone went into his cafe, they would see his store too!

“Of course! I’m not buying from the enemy.”

“Are you fucking-” Keith pinched the bridge of his nose. “Lance. Explain to me how we are even REMOTELY-” Keith yelled the word, eyes narrowing in satisfaction as Lance tried to hide his flinch. “-considered enemies? We aren’t even in the same line of business. What is this imaginary rivalry about? You think I’m competing with you or something, because I don’t give a shit about your store or you.”

Lance’s face darkened at that, but Keith honestly had no idea why. Why did it matter so much to Lance, being the ‘best’ alpha or whatever drove him? Why was it Keith who had to deal with it? “You’re the enemy of love!”

Keith’s face twisted in confusion and disgust. Why was it Keith who got stuck with the most idiotic person in the world as a roommate both at home and on their business street? “Lance, I don’t think-”

“Of course you don’t think! You obviously don’t think about half the crap coming out of your mouth.”

“Are you kidding me right now? Look who’s talking! Do you hear yourself right now? Enemy of love? Lance I’m not even interested in anyone-”

“That’s weird, cause you sure have a real interest in seducing women that come to your shop.”

Keith can’t help the look of pity on his face as he stares at his jealous roommate, so lost in his fever dream that he calls reality to even realize how ridiculous he sounded. He thinks of all the girls that come to his store, because Lance is only right about the fact that his clientele are mostly females and omegas. But Keith blames societal norms for that, more than him ‘charming’ anyone. Forget charming anyone, he’s basically their emotional trash can. Most of them come in for what he actually sells, as buying customers. It’s a concept Lance has trouble grasping for some reason. Still, an increasingly large amount also started to use that time to complain to Keith about their love life, and the persistently funny yet pathetic cafe owner next door. To Keith! Keith, the guy who, though he only reluctantly admits, hasn’t been able to have any sort of romantic life at all. He never really craved it, but also didn’t match the ‘omega look’ any alphas were looking for. Most omegas were only looking for alphas and refused to date Keith the moment they found out he was a fellow omega. Betas didn’t mind but also were prone to think it was a fling since ‘omegas will always leave once they found their alpha and fated mate anyways.’ The world was run by the second gender. Lance was a perfect example of this, it would seem.

Still, there was a detail that made Lance’s accusations even more ridiculous. “I have never actively seduced a woman in my life, Lance.”

“You mean you don’t even have to try-”

“No.” Keith sighed, stopping Lance before he could start again. “I mean never in my life have I seduced, tried to seduce, or otherwise somehow seduced a woman willingly.” After all, Keith had no interest in women. It wasn’t anything about his technique, though he had no doubt his ‘seduction technique’ was... well nonexistent. It was just the fact that he was gay. There was no need to seduce women.

Lance visibly perked up. “Ah, not as smooth with the ladies as you thought then?”

Keith felt that the man in front of him grew more pathetic as time went on. With an annoyed hiss, Keith turned away from Lance. “This is a waste of my time.”

“Hey!” Lance laughs. An actual, non-sarcasm dripped, laugh. “Don’t be embarrassed.”

“Do I look embarrassed to you?”

“Maybe a little pissed off instead?”

“Observant.”

“Listen.” Lance held out a hand to stop Keith from opening up the door. “Maybe I was wrong. I’ll give you that. I guess.”

Honestly, this was more than Lance had given in since their first meeting in the apartment. Still, Lance was known for twisting things in that stupid head of his. “Wrong about?”

“You’re obviously not as well versed in love as I am. I shouldn’t be yelling at you, I should be helping you. You know, as the true alpha of love.”

“Please don’t. I would rather listen to you whine about me stealing all the girls in the neighborhood than get love advice from you.” Keith’s mouth pulled back in disgust. “I mean, you know how many customers call you pitiful to me?”

“Girls can dig a little pity now and then.” Lance huffed, but was obviously getting depressed over it. Though he wasn’t yelling anymore. It wasn’t much, but maybe he finally succeeded in getting Lance even a little bit over himself. “As long as they like me better than you.”

“Are you-” Keith threw up his arms, his sentence devolving into frustrated noises. “Screw getting along.” He could never get used to this weird inferiority complex of Lance’s.

“You were trying to get along? Man you suck at it then.”

“YOU!” Keith slammed the door behind himself after just yelling that at Lance. His face was red as he breathed in angry gasps. Suddenly, the door bursts open from behind him, causing Keith to spin around with wide eyes.

“Keith wait- ugh!” Lance let out a yelp as he barreled into Keith, who hadn’t moved more than a step beyond the door. “Why are you just standing right outside the door?”

“Why are you barging out of the door?” Keith shot back.

“Because a certain hot head just barged out looking ready to kill someone.”

“Yeah, you.” Keith narrowed his eyes as Lance let out an embarrassed hiss.

Lance couldn’t meet Keith’s gaze any longer. “I’m bad at this.”

“You’re apparently bad at a lot of things.”

“Seriously, you-” Lance griped, grabbing Keith’s cheeks and pushing them together despite the omega’s protests and curses. “You’re like a child, constantly talking back!”

“You’re like a child! Constantly getting mad at things that aren’t real!” Keith finally pulled out of Lance’s horrible reach, feeling his cheeks burn. “What do you want, McClain?”

“I’m a horrible roommate.” Keith was taken aback, but Lance continued. “I don’t know why you do, but you just-” Lance let out a frustrated breath. “I get really worked up. And I’m normally... I should just be joking... I mean it to be joking most of the time. And then you just take it the wrong way-”

“I don’t like your jokes.”

“You don’t like my attitude. I don’t blame you. I don’t really like it either.” Lance looked down, actually looking a little ashamed of himself. “Besides, I haven’t actually told you any good jokes yet. I’ve got some. I promise.”

Keith’s mouth pulled tight and he looked Lance directly in the eyes. “I don’t want your jokes. I don’t want your attitude. I just want to be able to live my life peacefully.” Lance just nodded. It gave Keith the creeps. What was up with these constant mood swings? Lance looked away. Keith pondered if it was his face. Did his face piss Lance off? Was that a thing?

As if Lance’s docile nature was getting to Keith, he turned his head to the side and mumbled. “Just to be clear, I’m just trying to do the professional thing, saying this. But I would suggest putting more greenery inside the shop, instead of flowers. Since you’ll be going to someone else, after all. They might not say this but I will. It gives off a better look with your current decor.” Keith was embarrassed at how.... whiny it sounded. Since you’ll be going to someone else? Fuck, he was being absolutely ridiculous....

Lance leaned down, a cocky smile on his face. “Jeez, are you shyly giving me decor advice? While you’re pouting?”

“I’m not shy or pouting!” Keith bit back, feeling his neck burn. “I’m just saying you have horrible decor skills so I wanted to help out your poor friend working with you!” 

“I’ll show you decor!” Lance seemed ready to start another fight, but Keith didn’t wait. He practically hit the stairs two at a time.

“I don’t think you’re using that word right.” Keith just couldn’t help throwing the insult at Lance, getting in the last word. Except he should have known better than to think McClain would let him have the last word.

Lance leaned down the apartment’s stairwell. “I was joking! Though I know you don’t really get those. You know, jokes.”

Keith looked up at the man casually grinning from the top of the stairs, leaning so he had a clear view of Keith’s glare. “I told you I don’t like your jokes.” Keith meant to sound angry, but he was already calming down. 

Lance stared at him for a moment before shrugging. “It’ll grow on you.” He turned and Keith could hear the apartment door open and close. Keith struggled to move for a moment, but quickly just left it at that.

Putting his arm out to cover his face, almost as if to shade himself from the growing morning light, Keith hurried down the street. It was certainly not to hide the growing smirk on his face. He was definitely not thankful that Lance ‘alpha-supreme’ McClain somehow managed to peacefully stop their bickering. And Keith was certainly not holding in laughter at how ridiculous the whole fight had turned out. No way in hell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Been a while. Just done with a vacation. This chapter has been bugging me and I've been re-writing it a couple different ways since I wrote it. Probably why it took so long to get out. It's hard to try and keep this short but also move the plot to where I want it to be, you know? Still, I have too much fun writing banter and Klance has so much opportunity for stupid ass banter. Golden opportunities! 
> 
> I've been in a writing mood recently. Which is good because hopefully I'll be writing more than spending money. Quarantine is horrible for my spending habits. TT_TT Oh to have back the money I've spent on mobile games lmao.


	6. Chapter Six: Feel Good

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Feel Good - Illenium, Gryffin ft.Daya
> 
> Lance decides that he will take Keith up on his offer. For the cafe and Hunk's sake. Only that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do want to note that Lance still thinks Keith is an alpha, so in Lance's pov's Keith will be called an alpha. I thought it might cause some confusion, but I like unreliable narrator stuff like this haha  
> Also that it might be a bit jarring going between our two idiot's pov's, as Keith is warming up to Lance faster than Lance is to Keith, but Keith also understands more about Lance than Lance does, or wants to, about Keith for right now.

Lance glared out the window. He refused to look. He refused to acknowledge. He refused to-

“You sure give in easily.” Lance spun around to see Keith staring at the two cafe owners with narrowed, unimpressed eyes. 

“See!” Lance sputtered, throwing his hands into the air at Keith’s direction for that necessary added flair. “I told you we should have gotten someone else! How hard is it to find another floral shop around here?”

“Why would we go out of our way to do that? It doesn’t make any sense business wise, Lance.” Hunk sighed. Lance could tell even the big guy was starting to be worn down after ten minutes of the same argument. An argument they had been going in circles with for about a week now. Hunk frowned, putting a comforting hand on Lance’s shoulder as he tried to reason. “We are literally right next door to each other. It makes sense to give each other some service. It also reduces delivery and handling fees on our part.” Hunk went over to Keith, patting him on the back. “Plus I think you two just need some more supervision to get onto a good path.”

“Don’t touch me.” Hunk gave Keith a look Lance could only describe as a wounded puppy, causing the testy alpha to sigh. Lance had never seen him back down so fast. Score one for team Hunk. “Sorry, it’s not you. Really.” Lance wordlessly watched Keith, who he always thought to be a stuck up jerk, apologize almost immediately. He even seemed to shrink down a little as he rubbed his arm, dare Lance say, almost looking ashamed???

Hunk instantly picked up on the behavior as well, taking a step back with a smile. “No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that without asking if you were comfortable with it. I’m kind of a hugger.”

“I could tell.” Keith gave Hunk a wary glance but looked much more at ease.

“But I’m not wrong about you two getting along if you tried.” A skeptical look from both Lance and Keith made Hunk shrug. “And I think it would be a good idea for both of us to showcase your plants here. You take good care of them, I can tell.” Hunk sucked in a breath, as if just remembering something. “Of course, we’re paying for anything you put in here-” Hunk’s bottom lip stuck out, as he motioned frantically between Keith and Lance.

To Lance’s amazement, Keith just lets out a breathy laugh. “Well, I’d hope so.” Lance is so focused on the florist, he almost doesn’t respond when Keith looks over at him to ask a question. “Complaints?” Almost.

“Oh I have plenty.” He shoots back, annoyed at what Lance can only describe as a smug look. Those seem to be Keith’s two main emotions. Annoyance and smugness. 

Lance crosses his arms as Keith mutters under his breath. “Any I haven’t already heard, that is?” There’s the annoyance.

“Still, I’m a co-owner so I’m shutting up any complaints I have. To make Hunk happy, that is.” Lance stands up straight, really trying to push out his chest. His manly chest. He is so grown up and manly right now. Really taking the high ground here.

“Which I fully appreciate.” Hunk grins, elbowing Lance lightly. Lance wouldn’t want to admit it, but even Hunk’s light hits hurt a bit.

“I appreciate a more quiet Lance too.” Keith smirked. Lance lets out an over-dramatic gasp at the insult, but even he can see the teasing glint in Keith’s eyes. Something about the almost friendly teasing gets under the chip on Lance’s shoulder and he just can’t get the usual mire behind his actions. For now, at least.

“It’s just for today, so don’t get used to it.” Lance pouted.

Keith rolls his eyes, but shoots back. “Gotta replace your jealousy batteries once a month I guess? Must be my lucky day.”

Lance reels back, sputtering. “What?! J-jealous- what?! I- No!” Lance could feel his face burning up to his ears and down his neck as the smug look on Keith’s face just grew even more annoyingly content. He would never admit it out loud, but the statement held a certain truth to it. Even Lance knew he had been fairly jealous of Keith. He was just- Lance hated to admit it, but Keith was just the perfect alpha. He completely fit Lance’s full idea of what an alpha should be. Everything Lance felt like he failed to be. Even so, how could Keith just out and say that?!? Did he know? Was Lance that obviously green with envy around him? Taking a moment to steady his voice, Lance scoffed. Acting as if he hadn’t been completely taken aback just moments earlier. “Observing me now, mullet?” Yeah, that’ll make him embarrassed.

Keith smirked. “So you are jealous?” It was clear by his tone that it wasn’t really phrased as a question.

Hunk stepped between them just as Lance’s face flushed in anger. “So about those flowers-” Hunk’s voice pitched up in alarm, already sensing a cat fight. Luckily for Hunk’s nerves, Keith almost instantly switches to business mode. Leaving Lance to grumble to himself for once.

Keith started spouting off some plant names, long ones. Probably not even the names normal people used. Probably just trying to sound smart, Lance assumed. He explained why he chose them, mostly to Hunk as if Keith could just tell that Lance was zoning out. He was, of course, zoning out. It wasn’t that he didn’t care, but man those names were long. Lance didn’t mind plants, he thought they were cute and looked nice, but man did Keith get a bit too absorbed in useless details like the correct names. Couldn’t he just say ‘hey, this is a really cool plant. It’d look really nice by that support pillar there. Really brings out how cool and stylish your place is Lance.’ Okay. Even Lance knew Keith wouldn’t say that, but still. It was the principal of it all. When Lance zoned back into the conversation, Keith was asking about their prefered care levels for the plants and how much light certain areas of the cafe would get throughout a regular day. He didn’t really bother trying to ask Lance after having realized the level of attention Lance had been showing. So by the time he’s showing Hunk the plants they’d narrowed it down to over at his store, Lance was left to wander around the cafe in boredom. It was a slow day, with only a few to-go orders coming through while they had been discussing things earlier. Now, the sun was starting to lower in the sky and Lance set about lowering the blinds to prevent his potential customers, and mostly himself right now, from being utterly blinded. As he started to pull the blinds down for the window facing Keith’s shop, Lance’s eyes wandered.

He had to hand it to the mullet-head, the store was actually really cute. Overly cute, even. Like the strangest contrast of cute shop to annoyingly aggressive shop owner ratio that Lance had ever seen. Lance scoffed, smirking to himself. “Of course, the cafe gives a manlier, more suave vibe than that flower shop. No competition.”

“Jealousy is a disease.”

Lance whipped around with a startled gasp, a little embarrassed to be caught talking to himself. That is, until he saw who it was. “You traitor! You told him.” Pidge just grinned at him from her seat at a smaller single table. How did she sneak in without him hearing her? The door has a bell and everything!

“Oh please, don’t act like I gave away your deepest secrets or something.” Pidge huffed, turning back to type on her laptop. “He practically can’t keep his eyes off your ridiculous behavior. He could already tell he got you worked up.”

Lance felt his face heat up as he took another glance towards the floral shop. It was surprisingly easy for his eyes to find the grumpy owner despite the huge leafy plants obscuring the two. Lance felt his eyes narrow slightly, and he swallowed a lump growing in his throat. “Can’t keep his eyes off me?”

Pidge got up, leaning her back on the wall beside Lance. “What, like the sound of that?” She was teasing, elbowing Lance repeatedly while wiggling her eyebrows.

Lance scoffed, moving out of her short range of assault. “Why would I be happy about attracting that hothead, huh? I have something called standards, Pidge.”

“Well-” Pidge drew out the word, as if she didn’t already have her next jab at Lance’s ego locked and loaded in her mind. Lance knew her too well. “Your standards pretty much narrow down to just a pretty face. He has a pretty face.” Pidge jokingly acted like she was observing Lance, looking him up and down. “Of course, since he’s so obviously on your watch list-”

“As a rival!” Lance shrieked, feeling his stomach turn. What was she getting at? That Lance was acting like a little kid with a crush? Please! He was a full grown, extremely cool and suave adult who did not need to bully his crush to get his feelings across. When he liked someone, he wanted to treat them like royalty. He would never yell at them or try to make them angry. Did he try to make Keith angry? Well, sometimes when he felt petty maybe. Or when the hothead was acting too much like.... Well like Keith acts. Lance sighed, shaking the annoying thought out of his head. “I know he may act like he doesn’t care, but I can tell how obsessed he is with being the top alpha.” Pidge let out a snort that Lance graciously ignored. “I know he’s secretly aiming for my spot as hottest alpha on this block.”

“Just the block?”

“I’m a humble man, Pidge.”

“Hmm.” Pidge hummed, rolling her eyes. Then that smirk was back. “But what was that you said? He’s your rival for hottest alpha? So he’s pretty hot then?”

“Not as hot as me.” Lance sniffed, offended he even had to say such a thing. Pidge should be able to tell just looking between the two.

“Oh please. The bottom of my laptop is hotter than both of you numbskulls.” Pidge rolled her eyes, obviously bored of messing with Lance already. “Well I’m going to go say hi. Have fun mumbling to yourself in the corner, or whatever it was you were doing.”

“I will.”

“Eh, whatever you weirdo.” Pidge grinned before packing up her stuff and heading over to the floral shop. How is it that Lance is over here bored by himself when his friends are both around, only because they both abandoned him to go be with Keith? Well okay, Hunk is actually doing business that Lance didn’t want to deal with, but still...

Feeling annoyed, Lance decided not only would he be totally fine by himself but he would be the most fine anyone had even been. And as if to show Pidge how serious he was, despite her not even being in the cafe anymore, Lance started to mumble even louder to himself. Yes, he would be perfectly content in his little store by himself. But Pidge couldn’t hear this if he was inside the shop, so Lance grabbed some cleaning supplies to mope about out front where his voice could more easily be heard from the floral shop. It was mostly mindless grumbling, until he saw another offending plant in the dumpster. The spiky assassin poked out of the top, as if lying in wait for Lance. He narrowed his eyes, taking on a fighting stance. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to! I can see you hiding back there! I won’t let you near my butt this time!”

Sudden whispers from behind had Lance spinning on his heels. There on the sidewalk behind him were two, very cute, office ladies. They were obviously talking about him with a worried, and maybe a bit alarmed, tone. When their eyes locked with Lance’s, they scurried away as quickly as they could. As if Lance would do anything to two cute girls! Except give them his number and swoon them with his award winning smile! Now they think he’s a creep. Great. “Darn it Keith! Always making me look bad!”

He hears a sigh behind his back and a muttered, “is he serious?” Is this what everyone is doing these days? Sneaking up behind him?

Lance refused to even acknowledge the mullet head, especially as his two traitorous friends laughed at his expense. Mostly, he refused to show how red his face was. Embarrassed shame was hard to hide while looking at the person responsible for it. He technically could admit that he knew what happened wasn’t Keith’s fault. He did tend to get a bit.... overdramatic, especially around a certain other hotheaded store owner. Lance finally decided to face the facts, turning to look at the group behind him.

Keith didn’t actually look mad at all. In fact, he had a calm smile on his face, or at least it looked like a smile. Was he hallucinating? Mixed emotions made Lance turn away with a huff. He refused to think that Keith wasn’t the root of his emotional problems. Despite his earlier soul searching, Lance felt that it didn’t really hurt to continue blaming Keith. He didn’t need to see the internal back and forth in Lance’s mind. Especially if the person in question seemed to be finding the exchanges more amusing than annoying. At least, Lance found himself hoping Keith did. 

After a few hours of carrying and moving giant pots and smaller plants between the stores, Lance was tired as hell. Tired and grumpy. Because he hated to admit it, but the place did look better now. The atmosphere was way more welcoming and relaxing. It was Lance’s turn to do the nightly cleaning up, so Hunk had already gone home. Keith, who had stayed past his normal business hours already to help with setting up the plants, was already back at their apartment by now as well. It was just Lance. Deciding to take a little break, he was the boss and that had to come with some kind of perk he should hope, Lance slumped down into a chair in the office. It was a small room, just to the left of the back doors. Absentmindedly, he pulled out the business card he’d gotten from Keith. He didn’t understand why he gave it to Lance. After all, they spend a horrific amount of time together and are closer in distance than Lance would prefer even when they aren’t together. Being roommates and having their businesses next door to each other will do that.

Lance looked at the looping letters on a pastel floral background. “This so~ doesn’t fit him.” Lance grinned, pinning the card up by the employee bulletin board across from the office. He found he kind of liked the gap it presented. If Keith did nothing else, he at least always kept Lance’s attention. “What an eyesore.” Lance sighed. But if anyone else heard him, they’d hear such an affectionate tone to his voice, they would assume he was talking about someone much closer to him than a fausi-rival.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not gonna lie, I forgot that I was in a huge writing mood a while ago and got a lot of chapters done. They were just waiting on editing (I don't like editing the same day as writing, I miss too much) so now I have quite a bit of edited chapters in stock haha. I have also started playing Spirit Hunter: NG, which has my complete obsession rn. Which may or may not be the reason behind me forgetting. haha. But! I'll be releasing chapter 7 either sunday night or monday morning to make up for it! Or just cause I want to haha. Chapter 8 is another side character's pov that I've been looking forward to for a while. :3 So look forward to those!


	7. Chapter Seven: Feel About You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Impromptu movie date?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel About You - Aislin Evans

If he had to put it one way or the other, Keith would probably say he was getting along better with Lance. And possibly vice versa? It was in weird, small ways that Lance seemed to be warming up to Keith. Take this morning for example. Normally Lance makes himself a small pot of coffee and, somehow, downs the whole thing before he leaves. Keith, who had a pretty standard sleep schedule due to Shiro’s pestering throughout his teen years, didn’t typically drink coffee. It was one of the reasons he didn’t care about not being able to go into Lance’s cafe without being glared at for the first few weeks. Today, he was still glared at when he walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water. Though the reason became obvious when Lance started whining. Lance had apparently made too much to drink before work, a mistake he has never made once and Keith doubts any amount of coffee would be too much for Lance. He’d seen him down almost two whole pots one day when they were both off. It was horrifying. So naturally, Keith was skeptical at first. But then Lance continued, acting like he begrudgingly was allowing Keith some of his specially made bean brew so it didn’t go to waste. You know, he guesses Keith could have some. Or something like that. Keith honestly was a bit too stunned to fully remember Lance’s exact wording. He did know that the thought of rejecting the offer just to get Lance riled up crossed his mind. He couldn’t help it. How is he going to act like this just over offering him something to drink in the morning? And the glaring when he walked in? Obviously because Keith was originally going to drink something else and hadn’t asked Lance about getting a cup of coffee. Something Keith would never do anyways. How childish could he get? But that thought could go two ways if he acted up too, just to retaliate against his over dramatic roommate. So Keith accepted the ‘charity’ caffeine, knowing he would probably be wired the whole day. Keith the peacekeeper, Shiro would be so proud.

He was fairly right, of course. Both boys didn’t have work that day. Keith was normally closed on Mondays but Lance’s co-owner was out of town until the evening to visit his girlfriend so Lance gave the cafe an impromptu day off. It seemed if Keith wanted to have a decent conversation with Lance, he just had to shove a cup of coffee into his hands. He would note it for later, but if Keith were to give him a cup he was sure Lance would swear it was poisoned or something. He, himself, had briefly wondered the same thing when Lance had given him a cup. Currently, Keith was nursing his second cup on the couch and vaguely wondering if he’d get to sleep that night with all that coffee. It was a noisier morning than he was used to, with Lance here. It threw off his morning routine but it also wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be.

Lance was currently pacing around the kitchen, tapping on his phone. He seemed antsy, probably used to being much more active right now. Lance did tend to be on his phone a lot, almost to the point of an addiction. Not that Keith cared that much, but the action did bring up some memories he’d rather keep buried.

It was back after Shiro became Keith’s legal guardian. He had already had trouble falling asleep when Shiro was there, but when he wasn't, there were the nights that Keith stayed up until Shiro came back home the next day. He didn’t do it to rebel, he had been mentally and physically exhausted to the point that he, too, wished he could fall asleep. But the anxiety of losing Shiro like his father weighed on his mind, so Keith would constantly text Shiro all night while he was at work. During his breaks, Shiro would diligently call Keith to talk. He knew Shiro was worried, knew that his gentle coaxing to get Keith to sleep was done partially out of fear for his health. But Keith couldn’t help it, he feared the day that Shiro wouldn’t come back. Just like his father. Feared that one day he would have another call about an accident left on the voicemail. After all, Keith was told not to answer the phone unless it was his father’s number, being just a kid. It was the times he finally fell asleep that were the worst, constant nightmares of images he’d never witnessed. So Keith wouldn't sleep. He’d stay up, anxiously tapping on his cellphone Shiro got him and holding his breath between texts. Worried that the time would come that Shiro wouldn’t, couldn’t answer him.

That was, until Adam decided to move down with Shiro and Keith as well. He apparently had been working on a project and decided to stay on until it was completed. Another source of guilt for Keith, causing two of his older brother figures to leave the jobs they loved to come deal with his mess. He wouldn’t be the man he was today if not for Adam moving down as well, though. It was Adam, after all, who helped Keith through most of his separation anxiety and abandonment issues. Shiro meant the world to him, but Adam truly became Keith’s rock. The two of them created a home that allowed him to slowly thrive again. Truly, Keith being able to move out practically on his own felt like an accomplishment he never could have imagined happening back in his teens. Even the fact that he now could say his social sphere had widened a bit was an accomplishment in and of itself. His eyes drifted to Lance. Despite everything, this had been due to the alpha’s strange obsessive complex towards Keith. It almost made Keith happy for it. Almost.

Keith was brought back to the present as Lance fell dramatically onto the couch next to him, slightly bouncing as he rag dolled upon the soft fabric. His phone gently fell from his hand and onto the carpet, screen side up. Lance threw an arm over his face, moaning in agony. Pure dramatics, as usual. “I’m doomed. Doomed to a whole day of isolation and boredom.” Keith wanted to point out that he was, in fact, also here, but decided to not even bother.

“Have trouble spending time by yourself?” He had meant it to sound genuine. After all, Keith knew all too well that sickly feeling of being by yourself when the anxiety bubbles up. This was Lance though, and Lance seemed to always think Keith was out to get him or one up him. So Keith’s question was met with a glare. No doubt another misunderstanding between them. Keith had gotten used to it.

“Sorry I don’t like spending my days talking to plants, flower boy. I need actual human interaction or I’ll go insane.”

“Well I apologize to the humans that must interact with you then.” Keith quips, unable to hide his annoyance. Lance can be such a baby..... Most days it seems. He gets up, pouring his cold coffee down the sink and washing the cup. Lance makes a loud huffing noise, and Keith looks at him out of the corner of his eye. He’s surprised to see Lance already watching him.

“Pretty sure it was my turn to wash the dishes.”

Keith snorts, drying the single mug. It had been the only dish in the sink, considering Lance was still working through a fresh pot. “We never agreed on anything like that. It’s just a cup, anyways.”

“Well no, but you washed them yesterday and I washed them the day before and so on-” Lance moved his hands in a vague circular motion as he talked. “So I just thought we were doing that.”

Keith turned towards Lance, before going back to the couch. “Huh. Maybe we should talk about this kind of stuff.” Keith vaguely thought about what he’d heard roommates discussed when he was originally researching how to behave around a roommate, back in college. He was pretty sure chore distribution was a big one.

“Eh, maybe.” Lance shrugged, not looking particularly interested in doing so right this second. “If we just follow the lease guidelines, I think we’ll be fine.” He suddenly got a stupid grin on his face. “On that note, I’ll be sure to give you a proper heads up if I end up bringing any ladies over. You know, sock on the door type situations.”

Something that would never happen is more important than discussing daily tasks? Keith frowns at Lance’s suggestive wink and sighs. It’s hard to keep the pity off of his face. “I can’t say I’ll be sorry to never hear from you again, then.”

“Really?” Lance scowled, turning away from Keith. “Is it really that impossible in people’s minds that I could be popular? I mean, recently has been a bit of a dry streak...”

Keith thinks back to all of the girls who came over to his shop just to complain to him about being hit on by Lance, or to laugh about it. He honestly isn’t sure which one is worse. “Well, actions speak louder than words.”

Lance suddenly jumps up. “You’re right!”

“That’s a first.” Keith has never been more confused in his life. Lance McClain agreeing with him? He almost wants to check the news and see if the world is supposed to be ending or something.

“Honestly, I’m shocked too! I never knew you could come up with a good idea.”

“I meant that you agreed with me. Asshole.” Keith grumbled, leaning into the armrest of the couch. “What weird idea have you cooked up this time, Lance?”

Like a magician after a mind boggling trick, Lance waved his hands out in a grand gesture. The idea of Lance getting inspiration from that is infuriating and mind boggling to Keith. His actual idea is enough to make Keith wish he was at work instead today.

“We’re going to pick up chicks!”

Of all the stupid ideas, this had to be the worst. Lance’s smug face only made it worse. “Lance are you-”

“Ah!” Lance interrupted. “You can’t deny me! We both have nothing to do. You doubt my skills. Not to mention, this was how I formed such a great relationship with Hunk! Our days on the campus prowling out the hunt!”

“Please never say that again.”

“Keith, buddy. I’m telling you, we have to.”

“And were you ever actually successful?” Keith can’t help rolling his eyes. The hunt? Is he serious?

“It was the experiences along the way that mattered, not the end results.” Lance gloated, though that answered Keith’s question well enough. “I mean, I did date a lot in college.” Lance seemed to be lost in thought for a moment before his attention was back into the present conversation. “Besides, look at the big guy now! Has a sweet girlfriend and they’re crazy for each other!”

“And this-” Keith drawled out, feeling his face pull into a disgusted grimace just having to say it out loud. “-was from your, uh, girl hunting?”

Lance seemed to cringe just as much as Keith internally had. “No, but also don’t say it like that. I mean I kind of did, but it was more a metaphor- I mean- We’re just.... ugh.” Lance ruffled his hair and stood up to shoot finger guns at his own reflection. “We’re just cool guys who naturally attract the ladies. That’s all.”

“Right-” Keith drew out the word skeptically as his eyes were drawn to their balcony window. “Well, cool guy, you’re gonna be really cool in this rain we’re about to get.”

“What?” Just as he asked that, a big boom of thunder announced the arrived storm. “How did you know?”

“I can tell.” Keith shrugged. “Happens when you don’t live in the city your whole life. Or maybe you just never take notice of obvious things.” Lance was distraught, so much so that he didn’t even get upset at the dig or notice it at all. It made Keith slightly chuckle to himself. “Okay lover boy, plan b. You want some bonding?” He couldn’t help the snort and eye roll but there was a grin accompanying it this time. “Pick out a movie. I’ll decide if you’re cool enough to hang out with me.”

Lance narrowed his eyes, as if Keith had just given him a life or death mission. “I’ll pick out the best rom-com you’ve ever seen.”

“Please kill me instead.”

“Oh lay off. I have great movie taste! You’ll love it.” Lance had his back to Keith, already digging through the entertainment center’s cabinet with their collective movies.

“I would rather you pushed me off of this balcony. Please. Any other type of movie.”

“I have decided. It’s Titanic.”

Keith shoved one of the couch cushions into his face, letting out a low growl. “I asked for mercy and you fucking murder me in cold blood.” Still, Keith remains sitting, though he does keep grumbling. “That’s not even a rom-com. Isn’t the end super sad or something? Like the guy dies or whatever?” Keith almost remembers Shiro bawling after watching it on a date night with Adam. For like a week. Adam had said to just let him be, though Keith remembers the fond smile on Adam’s face while watching his husband.

“Well maybe I wanted to watch you cry?”

“There are more fun ways to do that.” Keith didn’t even think about the connotation of the words until they left his lips. Had he gotten so relaxed that the easy joking he was used to doing with Shiro and Adam came out? Was the atmosphere so comfortable that he didn’t even question saying it? Keith’s face felt at least ten degrees warmer as he tried to figure out how to play that off.

To Lance’s credit, he merely scoffs after meeting Keith’s wide eyed stare for a moment. Without batting an eye, Lance had started the movie up, sitting down on the opposite end of the couch. At some point during Keith’s internal freak out, he had also turned out the lights. Now the only light was from the tv and the occasional strike of lightning shining in from the glass balcony door. Settling into the cushion, Lance grins. “Nothing beats the tears of a good movie. And don’t even give me that look, it is a good movie. Stupid Keith.”

“Right...” Keith trailed off, happy for the movie’s distraction. That, and the fact that the storm outside had dimmed the room so much that the boy sitting next to him couldn’t see how red his face still was. It was going to be a long movie. Stupid Keith indeed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kinda forgot how fast I decided to start making this fic angst again so writing and editing the next chapter (yes I have finally ran out of actually fully written chapters instead of my wack ass notes and snippets I have pieced together for the other chapters) was kinda like a 'oh no, I can't believe you've done this' moment but to myself. Anyways enjoy this fluff chapter and look forward to an Allura chapter next. It's like 1/3 actually written rn but has so many notes I'm working through. Making the notes/drafts that first night at like 4am means that some stuff just doesn't make sense to my not sleep deprived brain unfortunately ahah


End file.
